Silo-door.



G: A. LEONARD.

SILO DOOR.

APPLICATION FILED MAR.14,1914.

Patented Janvfi, 1915.

2 8HBBTB-BHEET 1.

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AttornWs G. A. LEONARD.

SILO DOOR, APPLICATION FILED MARI14,1914.

mww, Patented Jan.5 ,1915.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2 wv Attorneys GEORGE A. LEONARD, OF SHEFFIELD, IOWA.

Specification of Letters Patent.

SILO-DOOR.

Patented Jan. 5, 1915..

Application filed March 14, 1914. Serial No. 824,767.

To a?! trim/a. it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE A. LEONARD, a citizen of the tlnited States,residing at Shellield. in the county of Franklin and State of Iowa, haveinvented a new and useful Silo-Door, of which the follwing'is aspecification.

This invention relates to doors for silos and the like, one of itsobjects being to provide a door which is constantly connected to thedoor frame whether said door is in open or closed position, the meansutilized for connecting the door to the frame being designed for use. asa portion of a ladder.

A further object is to provide a silo door which, when moved out ofclosed position, can notdrop below the door opening but will besupported at a point where it can be conveniently reached from theoutside for the purpose of shifting it to its complctely open position.j

A further object is to provide means whereby the door, when completelyopened, will be held securely against displacement, the holding meansbeing simple, durable and ellicient.

A further object is to provide means whereby the holding means can bereadily disengaged by a person outside of the silo when it is desired tolower the door to its closed position.

Another object is to provide a member for use in disengaging theelevated silo door,

said member, when the door closed, eonst'ituting a portion of a ladder.

A further object is to proridc means for locking the door when closed,said means being so constructed and mounted as to prevent the door fromclosing and locking a'cri dentallr while a person is within the silo,

With the foregoing and other objects in view which will appear as thedescription proceeds, the invention resides in the combination andarrangementof parts and in the details of construction hereinafterdescribed and claimed, it bein understood that changes in the preciseembodiment of the invention herein disclosed, can be made within thescope of what is claimed, without departing from the spirit of theinvention.

In the accompanying drawings the preferred form of the invention hasbeen sho an.

In said drawings z-l igure l is a frontelevation of a portionof a siloand showing one of the doors such as constitutes the present invention,in closcd'position. Fig. :2 is a section on line A-B big. 1. Fig. 3 is asection on line C--D Fig. 1. Fig. d is a vertical section through twosilo doors, one of them being shown raised and secured in open. positionand the other door being shown in closed position.

Referring to the figures by characters of reference 1 designates asubstantially fectangular frame preferably formed in a single castingand, in erecting a silo, a number of these frames are to be used, thesame being placed one upon the other as indicated in Figs. 1, 3 audit.Said frame can be of any preferred cross sectional contour but arepreferal'ily channeled in the outer sides thereof as shown at 2 so as toreceive the blocks 3 or other elements constituting the wall of thesilo, and which may be fastened to the sides of the door frame in anysuitable manner.

The door frame has, an inwardly extend ing flanged along each sidethereof provided with an inner beveled. face. 5 and another similarilange t} is formed upon the bottom of the door frame and another likeilange '7 depends from the top of the door frame. These flanges 6' and 7are also pro rided with inner beveled faces 8.

Formed upon the front faces of the flanges -1- near their upper ends arelugs U )roridcd withsockets 10, and extcndiin inwardly and iuinvardlyback of and above the lugs -9"al-e cars 11 forn'iing seats 1'3,

A bail 13 is mounted within cach door frame and the arms l-l of thisbail have outturned terminals 1.) which are slidahly and rcvolublvmounted withiniig e lugs 9. Each arm 1i provided, at a point between itsends, with a portion 16 inturned abruptly to form a shoulder orabut'inent l7 and mere ing into a deflecting portion 18 which is'ohliipielvdisposed relative to the arms 14;,

as shown particularly in l ig. 1. These in-' wardly extended portions Sill of the arms 14 constitute supports for a cross bin- ,19 preferablyformed with an eye 20 at one end for engaging one of the inwardlyextended portions and with a loop 21 at its other end for engaging theopposed inwardly extended portion. This bar 19 is slll'ipt l'tetl undernormal conditions by the, inwardly extended portion 16 and, when thedoor of the silo elosed, the said bar 19: forms a rung of a ladder.

The intermediate portion 22 of the bail 13 is offset for the greaterportion of its length to form an outstanding yoke 23 and those portionsof the bail between the yoke and the arms 14 are mounted in brackets 24which are secured to the outer face of adoor 25 preferably close to thelower edge of the door. When the door is closed, this outstanding yoke23 forms a rung of a ladder as will be apparent.

The edges of the door 25 are preferably beveled, as shown at 26, so asto fit snugly against the beveled or inclined faces 5 and 8 of the doorframe and, if desired, a strip of packing material such as indicated at27 and which may be made of felt or the like, can be arranged along theouter face of the door 25 closed to the beveled faces 26 so as to. bearoutwardly against the flanges 4;, G

and 7 and thus seal the connection between the door and the door framewhen said door is properly secured in closed position.

Brackets 28 are secured to the lower por tion of each door close to thesides of the 'door and each bracket has a finger 29 outstandingtherefrom and projecting down- .Wardly. These fingers are adapted to engagethe lower flange (5 in the door frame and thus hold the lower portion ofthe door 30 tightly against the flange 6.

lirotally mounted upon the upper portion of the door 25 close to thecenter thereof is a cam 30 having a. handle 31 whereby it can berotatedreadily, this handle consti- $5 tuting a weight whereby the cam is heldnormally in position to bear against the flange 7 when the door is movedto closed position. When the door is closed, the fingers .29 engage theloiver flange 6 and the cam 80 laps the upper flange 7 and engages theouter surface of-said flange, it being possible to rotate. the cam 30 bymeans of handle 81 and in the direction of the arrow in Fig. 1 for thepurpose of binding the upper edge of the door tightly against the innerface of the flange 7 -With the door thus secured in place, it will beseen that the yoke 23 and the bar 19 can be used as ladder rungs andthis bar and the yoke can be spaced apart any desired distance so thatthe proper intervals between the rungs of the ladder formed by the;,sei'eral doors and their attachments will be substantially uniform.

When it is desired to open the door, the handle 31 is swung so as todisengage the cam 30 from the flange 7. The upper end of the door isthen pressed inwardly and the. lower edge of the door will.consequently. slide upwardly along the flanges 4., thus W9 withdrawingthe fingers 99 from engage ment with the flange h. This upward slidingmovement will. continue until the lower portion of the door 25 is swungupwardly against the yoke whereupon further downward swinging movementof the upper portion of the door relative to the bail 13 will be limitedand the door will thus he suspended within the silo where it cannot dropupon any person in the silo. A fter the door has been pressed inwardlyto the position described, it can be swung upwardly bodily with the baill3 and about the extensions 15 as pivots, this movement resulting in theup per ends of the arms ll riding along the in her curved sides of thecars 11. until the arms 7 pass the upper ends of the ears whcreuprm saidarms will spring outwardly to position above the seats 12. By thenreleasing the door, the arms 14- will gravitate down onto the seats 12so that the door will thus be suspended in elevated position as shown inFig. 4.

The inward movement of the arms 11 while passing between the cars 11 ispermitted in VlGW of the fact that the inwardly extended portion 1618 ofone of the arms ll extends through a loop 521.

When it desired to close the door, the bar 19 is pushed downwardly sothat it will ride upon one or both bf the obliquely disposed portions18, thus partly withdrawing the terminals 15 from the lugs 9. It is ofcourse necessary first to push the door up wardly to a slight extent soas to disengage the arms l l from the seats 12 before the ba r 19 isshifted in the manner described. This movement of the arms ll towardeach other will be'sullicicnt to disengagothem. from the ears 11 and thebail 13 together with the door 25 can then he swung downwardly until thelower ed 'e of the door 25 comes against the flanges a, the door movingdownwardly in an are such as outlined by the dotted lines in Fig. l. Itwill be seen that during this lowering of the door there is no danger ofits becoming disconnected. and falling downwardly into the silo. As soonas the door has been lowered in the manner described, the upper endthereof is swung forwardly toward the door frame but. as the handle 31,which constitutes a weight, normally-'hangs downwardly, it will be seenthat the upper end of cam 30 will strike against the flange 7 and thedoor will thus be prevented from coni iiletely closing. The fingers 2 9,however, will engage the flange 6 when the front end of the door isswung outwardly. As soon as the cam comes against flange '7, handle 31.is shifted to dis-- engage the cum from the flange, whereupon the doorcan be drawn :lorward info the door frame and the cam slii l'trd in thedime tion imlicated, by the arrow in hi l, the movement of the cam beingsuch as to cause the sides, top and bottom of the door to hind tightlyupon the flanges in ihc door frame. Ears ma he extemlcd from the sidesof the door frznne and constitute means f or connecting the upper end-ofa chute to the frame.

What is claimed is 1. The combination with a door frame and a door, of abail having its lower or mtermediate portion connected to the lowerportion of the door and its ends connected to the upper portion of theframe, said intermediate portion outstanding to limit the inwardswinging movement of the door relative to the bail.

2. The combination with a door frame and a door, of a bail connected tothe upper portion of the door frame and to the lower portion of thedoor, said bail having means outstanding therefrom for limiting theinward swinging movement of the door relative to the bail, saidoutstanding portion constituting a ladder rung when the door is closed,and means upon the door frame and. cotiperating with the bail forsupporting the bail and door in open position. i

3. The combination With a door frame and a door, [of a bail connectingthe lower portion of the door to the upper portion of the frame, meansupon the frame for engaging the sides of the bail to support the doorand bail in open position, and means connecting the sides of the bailsand coiiperating therewith for disengaging said sides from thesupporting means.

-l. The combination with a door frame and a door, of a bail constitutinga connection between the lower portion of the door and the upper portionof the frame, the

sides of said bail having obliquely disposed deflecting portions, meansupon the door for engagement by the sides of the bail to sup port thedoor in open position, and a cross member movably engaging saiddeflecting portions at the sides of the bail and coiipcrating therewithto disengage the sides from the supporting means.

5, The combination with a door frame, a

door and means upon the upper and lower portions respectively of thedoor for engaging the frame to hold the door in closed position, of abail constituting a connection between the lower portion of the door andthe upper portion of the frame, the sides of the bail being shiftabletoward each other, means upon the frame and in the paths of the sides ofthe bail for engagement by said sides to support the door in openposition, and a, cross,membercarried by said side's and coiiperatingtherewith to disengage 'the sides from the suppor ng means. f

6. The combination with door frame and. a door, of a hail connecting thelower portion of the door to the upper portion of the frame, means uponthe bail and cotiperating with the door for holding said door in anintermediate open position, means upon the frame and cotiperating withthe bail for holding the door entirely open.

7. The combination with a door frame and a door, of a bail connectingthe lower portion of the door to the upper portion of the frame, meansupon the bail and cooperating with the door for holding said door in anintermmliatc open position, means upon the frame and cooperatii'ig withthe bail for holding the door entirely open, and across member engagingopposed sides of the bail and coiiperatinr therewith to disengage theball from the holding means upon the door frame, said cross member andthe first named means forming ladder rungs when the door is closed.

8. The combination with a door frame and a door, of a bail connectingthe lower portion of the door to the upper portion of the frame, saidbail having inwardly movable side portions slidably and revolublyengaging the door frame, deflecting ears extending inwardly from thedoor frame and into the paths of the sides of the bail, said earsforming seats for the sides of the bail when the door is raised to openposition.

9. The combination with a door frame and a door, of a bail connectingthe lower portion of the door to the upper portion of the frame, saidbail having inwardly mow able side portions slidably and rerolublyengaging the door frame, deflecting ears extending inwardly from thedoor frame and into the paths of the sides of the bail, said earsforming seats for the sides of the bail when the door is raised to openposition, and means mounted upon the side portions of the bail fordisengaging said side portions from the seats.

10. The combination with a door frame and a door, of a bail connectingthe lower portion of the door to the upper portion of the frame,.saidbail'haring inwardly 1ll()\'- able side portions slidably and revolublyengaging the door fi'al'ne, deflecting ears extending inwardly from thedoor frame and .into the paths of the sides of the bail, said.

ears forming seats for the sides of the bail when the door is raised toopen position, said side portions of the bail having obliquely disposeddeflecting portions, and a cross bar movahly engaging said deflectingportions and coo 'ierating therewith to shift the side portions of thebail toward each other and out of engagement with the seats. Intestimony that I claim the foregoing as my own, I have hereto affixed mysignature in the presence of two witnesses.

GEORGE A. LEONA RD. Witnesses SEL NA VVILLsoN, I.'E. SIMPSON.

